OBJECTIVE To examine the association between (1) local political party, (2) urban policies, measured by spending on local programmes, and (3) income inequality with premature mortality in large US cities. DESIGN Cross sectional ecological study. OUTCOME MEASURES All cause death rates and death rates attributable to preventable or immediate causes for people under age 75. PREDICTOR MEASURES:...

The absolute income hypothesis—that holding other factors constant, the higher an individual’s income the better is their health—is supported by a considerable body of evidence. 2 3 However, according to the more recent relative income hypothesis, an individual’s health is also affected by the distribution of income within society. Someone with a given income would have worse health if he or sh...

This study analyses differentials in life expectancy and cause-specific death rates among the elderly Jewish population in Israel in the early 1970s and early 1980s. We find substantial inequality in old-age mortality levels across subpopulations in geographic units and show that this inequality increased between the two periods. Much of the variation in old-age mortality is explained by differ...

Objective: The objective of this article was to explore gender inequality and its relationship with health expenditure and maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). A unique analysis was used to correlate the Gender Inequality Index (GII), Health Expenditure and Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR). The GII captured inequalities across three dimensions – Reproductive health, Women empowerment a...

This paper suggests a simple explanation for the cross-section Kuznets curve: endowments of crops and germs that resulted in a permanent European minority settlement are associated with high inequality and intermediate income. Where there was no European settlement, both inequality and income were low. Where Europeans came to constitute the overwhelming majority of the population, income was hi...

As in other societies, socioeconomic inequality in Mexico is manifested in disparities in morbidity and mortality rates among the Mexican population. Individuals living under the most precarious socioeconomic conditions display higher rates of child mortality and other health conditions that are often often associated with poor economic development, such as malnutrition. Moreover, Mexicans from...

This paper investigates inequality in smoking-related mortality risk, focusing on the intergenerational transmission of smoking. We estimate a latent factor model for smoking initiation, cessation and mortality risk using the British Health and Lifestyle Survey (HALS), and present results from a counterfactual approach to inequality of opportunity. Parental smoking lowers the age at starting by...

The relative income-health hypothesis postulates that income distribution is one of the key determinants of population health. The discussion on the age and gender patterns of this association is still open. We test the relative income-health hypothesis using a panel data covering 21 developed countries for over 30 years. We find that net of trends in GDP per head and unobserved period and coun...

the rate of suicide globally and in iran is increasing. suicide destroys human capital and poses huge obstacles for the improvement of women’s health and for the wider public health agenda. the main objectives of this paper is to review the available evidence on suicide in iran as well as to explore the underlying causes and reasons for suicidal tendencies among iranian women. the paper tests w...